A few weeks ago when the childish issue between religious people and secular(to what ever this weird concept might mean) people I started noticing that things are coming to the weird corner that it seems to be going to now.

I don't know if you remember but it began in the weird remark of Ron Houldai, the Mayor of Tel Aviv, who said something along the line that

- Studying Talmud is a waste of government money.

- The secular public should not support it.

- The secular public should revolt against the religious public which oppresses them.

Aside from the fact that such remarks are disrespectful and even dangerous (not to us, but of course...nevermind) they are simply un-required.

I have decided to give the Tel Aviv city a very generous offer which to the best of my understanding has never been given the the secular community in Israel - and that is to teach them, in volunteering, the importance of studying Gemara and then they might understand it better (as frankly, without understanding it would be natural that they won't get the point) - then they might even wish to study it by themselves.

I have sent my letters to around 10 representatives* of the Tel Aviv mayor's office - I also asked for encouragement for this (of course only on the level of conceptual support - as it was a completely volunteering offer) from all Knesset representatives of Shass, Yhadut Hatorah and Habit Hyudi and also selected reporters in the Israeli media.

Nobody has bothered to answer this genuine offer. I also stressed that I would need some response as for me it means coming by plane from a different country. I think that the moral of this story is that these people would be willing to go to any extent to make war between the people - but when an offering of peace is being made it is treated like the plague.

I thought, however, that I should share this story with you as these people represent you and, personally, I find this kind of behavior utterly disgusting and disrespectful towards each and every one of you.

* I must be accurate and say that I did not manage to direct my offer to Ron Huldai himself as I did not find his E-mail.